Grease is the word at HMT

GREASE fans are in for a treat with a special evening lined up in Aberdeen later this month.

The city’s His Majesty’s Theatre is to host a Sing-a-long-a Grease night on Friday, February 22.

It will mark the 40th birthday of the original stage version of the musical, which became a hugely-popular film starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John and spawned a succession of Top Ten hits

The interactive show rolls into town as part of an 80-stop nationwide UK tour and the audience can sing along to the movie musical, complete with on-screen lyrics.

There is also a fancy dress competition for those who want to dress up as characters in the film, including the famed T-Birds or Pink Ladies and fans can belt out Summer Lovin’, Grease Lightning and You’re The One That I Want.

Producer Ben Freedman, who has previously staged Sing-a-long-a Sound of Music and Sing-a-long-a Abba, said: “Sing-a-long-a Grease is the show that audiences have been asking for since we first presented a singalong show back in 1999.

“Sing-a-long-a Grease is much more than ‘just a film’ it’s an event, an interactive experience and the most fun you can have with your clothes on.”

The performance starts with a Sing-a-long-a host who warms up the audience, trains them how to hand-jive, deploy the contents of their free goodie bags and heckle in all the right places as well as judge the fancy dress competition.

The stage musical Grease premiered at the Off-Broadway Eden Theatre in downtown Manhattan, before transferring to Broadway in June, 1972 and was based on an earlier, grittier ‘play with incidental music’ called Grease Lightning, first staged in Chicago the previous year.

In 1978 it became a movie starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John which was a huge hit and was voted the greatest musical ever in a 2003 poll conducted for Channel 4’s show on the 100 Greatest Musicals.

Tickets for Sing-a-Long-a- Grease at HMT on Friday, February 22, are available online at www.boxofficeaberdeen.com, by phone at 01224 641122 and at Aberdeen Box Office at the Music Hall and His Majesty’s Theatre.